From open source to acquired (Interview)

Ashley Jeffs shares his journey with Benthos, an open source stream processor that was acquired by Redpanda. We talk about the evolution of data streaming technologies, the challenges he faced while growing the project, the decision to bootstrap versus seek venture capital, and what ultimately led to the acquisition. We discuss reactions to licensing changes, what it’s like to have your thing acquired, the challenging yet fulfilling nature of open source work, what’s next for Benthos, and what it takes to enjoy the journey.

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Featuring:

• Ashley Jeffs – Website, GitHub, X
• Adam Stacoviak – Website, GitHub, LinkedIn, Mastodon, X
• Jerod Santo – GitHub, LinkedIn, Mastodon, X

Show Notes:

• Data streaming and Benthos with Mihai Todor & Ashley Jeffs (Go Time #192)
• Announcing Bento, the open source fork of the project formerly known as Benthos - WarpStream - Stream More, Manage Less
• warpstreamlabs/bento: Fancy stream processing made operationally mundane. This repository is a fork of the original project before the license was changed.
• Benthos | Benthos
• Redpanda Acquires Benthos to Deliver a Complete, End-to-End Streaming Data Platform
• redpanda-data/connect: Fancy stream processing made operationally mundane

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